But for the timely intervention of the northern regional police command, students of the Dabokpaa Vocational and Technical School would have set ablaze school property over the death of their colleague, Alhassan Adam, the dining hall prefect. Adam passed way in the early hours on Monday June 29, 2015.
The student, who is the dining hall prefect fell unconsciously after taking dawn meal for fasting. His colleague students rushed to the assistant senior house mistress to ask for an official note to send him to the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), but the assistant house mistress allegedly refused on grounds that it was too early in the day to issue the note.
The students rushed Adam to the TTH without the note only for the doctor on duty to demand the note the senior house mistress had refused them. Adam died in the process at the teaching hospital without any medical care.
Hours after his death, two female students also collapsed and were rushed to the same hospital for treatment. The incident angered a section of the students who accused the headmistress and management of the school of negligence.
While management and some education authorities were in a crucial meeting over the sad incident, some angry students started throwing stones and threatened to set the school ablaze.
The Northern Regional Operations Command of the Ghana police service responded quickly to the situation to save lives and properties at the school. Police have asked students to remain calm while a post-mortem is conducted to establish the cause of death of Adam.
Meanwhile, some head masters who took time to address the students have condemned the students’ intent and warned them of the dire consequences of their actions.
The head master of Tamale Senior High School and Chairman of Heads of Conference of Assisted Schools in the northern region, Alhaji Boting Naa T.A.Mahama expressed his disappointment at the behavior of the students.
He stressed the need for students not to see the school as not only impacting book knowledge, but also a place to learn good manners to be good citizenry.
Alhaji T.A.Mahama told the students that their actions or inactions were not in semblance with the teachings and beliefs of any religion, and called on the students to be law abiding and use the appropriate quarters to address their concerns if any.
He also asked the students to relate death as a natural occurrence, adding death is inevitable and as children from various religious homes, they should know better.
Head master of Northern school of Business Wilberforce Shaibu Adam reminded the students of the consequences of similar actions taken by students of Bolga girls and Bolga technical schools in the upper east regions over the death of their colleagues in which they accused teachers of being the cause of their colleagues’ death.
He said investigations exonerated the teachers and students were made to pay for the distractions that occurred. He cautioned the students especially those from the northern region to desist from any violent acts in educational institutions.
Head master of Business Senior High School, Mr Iddrisu Neindow reminded the students to remember their root and behavior accordingly.
He said already the region battles with a lot of problems in the sector and any attempts that will jeopardize the progress of education should be discouraged by all. The Tamale metropolitan director, Alhaji Abdul-Rahman Saani urged all students in educational institutions to follow lay-down procedures and not to engage in violent acts.
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